1. | beseech (zapaxadd). See on consolation, Luke vi. 24.
By the mercies (dua Tay oixtippav). By, not as an adju- ration, but as presenting the motive for obedience. I use the compassion of God to move you to present, ete.
Present. See on ch. vi. 13. It is the technical term for presenting the Levitical victims and offerings. See Luke ii. 22. In the Levitical sacrifices the offerer placed his offering so as to face the Most Holy Place, thus bringing it before the Lord.
Bodies. Literally, but regarded as the outward organ of the will. So, expressly, Rom. vi. 13, 19; 2 Cor. v.10. Com- pare Rom. vii. 5, 23. Hence the exhortation to glorify God in the body (1 Cor. vi. 20; compare Philip. i. 20; 2 Cor. iv. 10). So the body is called the body of sin (Rom. vi. 6; compare Col. ii. 11). In later Greek usage slaves were called copara bodies. See Apoc. xviii. 13.
A living sacrifice ($volav fécav). Living, in contrast with the slain Levitical offerings. Compare ch. vi. 8,11. ‘ How can the body become a sacrifice? Let the eye look on no evil, and it is a sacrifice. Let the tongue utter nothing base, and it is an offering. Let the hand work no sin, and it is a holocaust. But more, this suffices not, but besides we must actively exert ourselves for good; the hand giving alms, the mouth blessing
154 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. (Cu. XI.
them that curse us, the ear ever at leisure for listening to God” (Chrysostom).
Acceptable (evdpecrov). Lit., well-pleasing.
Which is your reasonable service (rv Aoyixnv AaTpelav). Explaining the whole previous clause. Service, see on ch. ix. 4. The special word for the service rendered by the Israelites as the peculiar people of God is very significant here. Reasonable, not in the popular sense of the term, as a thing befitting or proper, but rational, as distinguished from merely external or material. Hence nearly equivalent to spiritual. So Reyv., in margin. It is in harmony with the highest reason.
2. Conformed—transformed (cveynpuarites9e — werapop- fovate). See on was transfigured, Matt. xvii. 2. For con- Sormed to, Rev., correctly, fashioned according to.
Mind (vods). See on ch. vii. 23. Agreeing with reasonable Service.
That good and acceptable and perfect will. Better to render the three adjectives as appositional. ‘May prove what is the will of God, what is good,” etc. The other rendering compels us to take well-pleasing in the sense of agreeable to men.
3. Not to think, etc. The play upon ¢poveiy to think and its compounds is very noticeable. “Not to be high-minded (hy- perphronein) above what he ought to be minded (phronein), but to be minded (phronein) unto the being sober-minded (sophron- eon. See on 1 Pet. iv. 7.
The measure of faith (wétpov tictews). An expression which it is not easy to define accurately. It is to be noted: 1. That the point of the passage is a warning against an undue self-estimate, and a corresponding exhortation to estimate one’s self with discrimination and sober judgment. 2. That Paul has a standard by which self-estimate is to be regulated. This is expressed by os as, according as. 3. That this scale or meas-
ure is different in different persons, so that the line between
conceit and sober thinking is not the same for all. This is ex-
On. XIL) THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 155
pressed by éuépicev hath imparted, distributed, and éxdotw to each one. 4. The character of this measure or standard is de- termined by faith. It must be observed that the general ex- hortation to a proper self-estimate is shaped by, and fore- shadows, the subsequent words respecting differences of g2/ts. It was at this point that the tendency to self-conceit and spirit- ual arrogance would develop itself. Hence the precise defini- tion of faith here will be affected by its relation to the differing gifts in ver. 6. Its meaning, therefore, must not be strictly limited to the conception of justifying faith in Christ, though that conception includes and is really the basis of every wider conception. It is faith as the condition of the powers and of- fices of believers, faith regarded as spiritual insight, which, ac- cording to its degree, qualifies a man to be a prophet, a teacher, a minister, etc.; faith in its relation to character, as the only principle which develops a man’s true character, and which, therefore, is the determining principle of the renewed man’s tendencies, whether they lead him to meditation and research, or to practical activity. As faith is the sphere and subjective condition of the powers and functions of believers, so it furn- ishes a test or regulative standard of their respective endow- ments and functions. Thus the measure applied is distinctively a measure of faith. With faith the believer receives a power of discernment as to the actual limitations of his gifts. Faith, in introducing him into God’s kingdom, introduces him to new standards of measurement, according to which he accurately determines the nature and extent of his powers, and so does not think of himself too highly. This measure is different in different individuals, but in every case faith is the determining element of the measure. Paul, then, does not mean precisely to say that a man is to think more or less soberly of himself ac- cording to the quantity of faith which he has, though that is true as a fact; but that sound and correct views as to the char- acter and extent of spiritual gifts and functions are fixed by a measure, the determining element of which, in each particular ease, is faith.